


Chasing Twisters

by Talinor



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Borderlands-esque AU, F/F, First Meeting, Flirting, Meet-Cute, as cute as this scenario could get, lowkey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 21:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17516552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talinor/pseuds/Talinor
Summary: "My patience is runnin' awfully thin here," she growled. "So you'd better start answerin' my questions before I'm done playin' nice."The smirk dropped from their face, but they tried their best not to seem intimidated. Tried. She knew what to look for, the subtle reactions most had towards her."So, little birdy," her other hand went to their chin, tilting it up ever so slightly. "It's high time for you to start singin'."





	Chasing Twisters

**Author's Note:**

> this is fully self-indulgent and I Do Not apologize   
> enjoy!

She was seein' ghosts. Had to be.

For the past mile or so, every time Ashe glanced behind her, she'd nearly always see a flicker of purple light in a vaguely humanoid shape. It was so quick she'd convinced herself she'd imagined it the first few times. She'd heard stories about what the Badlands could do to a person's psyche. 

How the power of the alien tech hidden deep beneath still lingered and superstitious tales of how the ghosts of seekers before her and her crew still haunted the land. Many ordinary people believed they could crawl into your mind and corrupt you from the inside and claw back out; cautionary tales of evil seducing the greedy and the consequences that lie within.

But Ashe was not like many ordinary people.

Still, she knew something was off. If not some kinda ghost, she wondered privately, then what the hell was plaguing her?

"Boss!" A crewman's voice breathed life into the night's dead silence. "We've got one!"

She turned her attention to the omnic flipping down the scope of his rifle. She had to focus on reality, not her private delusions. "Yeah?" she made her way through to his side. "How big is it?"

"See for yourself," the rifle passed from his rust-weathered hands to hers. "I think you'll like what you see." She reserved her judgment 'till the scope was at her eye.

It was unlike anything she'd seen before. The relics they'd managed to snag were small, unassuming things. It was easy to assume they were cute trinkets instead of alien tech older than human civilization. The active ones were a thousand times more powerful than any tech humans had stumbled to build for themselves. And a million times more dangerous, in the wrong hands.

So boatloads of money passed the so-called right hands for any intact and authentic relics. Big names analyzed them for advancements in their own technology, leading to outright war on the border planets and political war on the more 'civilized' colony planets. 

And of course, someone has to be the middle man in the exchange. People to seek relics out, risk life and limb in most scenarios. Most seeking fame and fortune, others for the pure thrill. Intact relics were practically blood-stained golden apples. Surviving the dangers of extracting one and living long enough to sell it was a hard-fought achievement worthy of respect.

If that was the case, _this_ relic was practically the goddamn Garden of Eden. It wasn't a tiny chipped-off bit or a weird computer chip to decipher and dissect. It seemed to be a full, mostly intact _ship._ A few sizable holes were scorched in the pristine white hull, but she could see the lights lining the outside were still on. Her entire crew could live quite comfortably off their own chunks of the massive sum something like that was sure to bring.

But she could see something else far off in the distance- an extraction ship. Someone had already found the score before them, and her half-formed plans only lasted a second before she saw the logo emblazoned on the front of the ship. 

A bunch of shithead seekers they could have handled. A small force of Overwatch would have been no problem- they were too high 'n mighty not to negotiate some kinda deal. But this extraction ship wasn't for some nameless nobodies or holier-than-thou Overwatch agents.

It was for _Talon._

Well, this whole operation just got a hell of a lot more complicated. Talon was cold-blooded. They kept up a nice facade in public, but in private operations? They weren't keen on taking prisoners- they were just witnesses waiting to spill their secrets. The only reason she knew their true nature was because her parents had been pretty sophisticated operatives. She didn't remember much from her eavesdroppings, but she knew enough nasty stuff for that logo to send a reluctant chill racing underneath her skin.

"Son of a _bitch,"_ she muttered under her breath, putting down the scope. She looked back at the rest of her crew. "Change of plans, boys, we're--" She didn't get the chance to finish her sentence.

It all happened fast, faster than she could process a way to avoid it. The apparition blinks of light formed a cloaked figure sprinting straight at her. They had the advantage of surprise on their side, and they utilized it far too well. Bob, bless whatever could pass for a heart in him, moved to intercept them. But the big guy was too slow to hinder their progress much. They vaulted over him onto his shoulders, pushing off him for momentum towards their target: Ashe. She tried to move out of their way, but one clawed hand managed to snag onto her vest. That was enough.

Ashe only had one more moment with her crew before the figure wrapped their other arm around her. She heard one of the newer lackeys, probably Heath, shout "Boss-!"

And then she disappeared in purple light.

She'd heard about translocation before, but this was her first time ever experiencing it. Needless to say, it wasn't something she'd recommend without lying through her teeth. It was what she imagined being thrown headfirst to the bottom of the ocean would feel. Her ears popped, her stomach did dangerously fast somersaults, her skin tingled painfully as if someone had just attached full-charged live wires to her entire body. All within the span of a second.

Now, Ashe prided herself on being a tough nut to crack. It took a hell of a lot for her to do more than just swallow the pain down and keep on keepin' on. But this? This shook her to the core, and she allowed herself a moment of weakness to show it.

She would've buckled to her knees if it weren't for the hands holding her sides firmly in place. Her vision blurred to a mess of fluorescent white lights and vague shapes, but she heard the voice well enough to understand it. "Come on, chica." The voice was smooth and accented. "Can't have you passing out on me." One of the hands reached up to lightly slap her face. For an instant, she saw the barest hint of a face under the hood. "Stay with me."

Her head still swam, but the waters were calming. Ashe, however, was not.

"Who the hell are you?" She sneered, wrenching her arms away from her reluctant companion's grip. She stumbled a bit, but her rising rage kept her steady enough to stay on her feet. "You've got _some fuckin' nerve_ if you think you can get away with kidnappin' me."

"Now, now," the figure said, raising their hands in a placating gesture. "Let's not get too hasty here, víbora." They let out a slight chuckle. "Guess I can't blame you for the anger, though." The hands moved to their hood. "But I brought you here..." The hood fell, revealing the figure's face. "For an opportunity."

Ashe knew a pretty face when she saw one. She also knew how to spot any danger hiding beneath it like a snake in the grass. She saw it every day in the mirror, after all. 

The face this stranger had was a perfect combination of the two. Even coated in dirt and dust, their warm brown skin still looked soft. Dark purple eyeshadow framed their strikingly bright-colored eyes well, even if it was a little smeared. Purple matte graced soft lips drawn back into a smirk. Their hair was a long sidecut, starting out a dark earthen brown and gradually cascading into purple. It was pretty fuckin' obvious what their favorite color was.

Not gonna lie, if they were in a different scenario, Ashe would be intrigued. If she saw this face from across the way in some seedy backwater bar, she might've taken a chance on 'em. See where things would go.

Right now and here, though? The anger blazing in her wasn't stoked by their platitude. She grabbed a handful of their cloak and pulled them toward her. "My patience is runnin' awfully thin here," she growled. "So you'd better start answerin' my questions before I'm done playin' nice." 

The smirk dropped from their face, but they tried their best not to seem intimidated. Tried. She knew what to look for, the subtle reactions most had towards her.

"So, little birdy," her other hand went to their chin, tilting it up ever so slightly. "It's high time for you to start singin'."

Uncertain silence hung in the air, smoke from a dragging cigar. They did a pretty good job not showing their hand, but she saw enough to know they were wondering if she was being serious. She hoped she conveyed she was serious as the grave.

Finally, the smoke cleared with a slightly bewildered chuckle.

 _"Wow,"_ they said, tension releasing from their shoulders. "Intel said you'd be intense, but I had no idea how bad the víbora's bite was."

"Trust me," her grip tightened. "You ain't seen nothin' yet. You will if you keep on pussyfootin' around with my patience."

"Don't worry, chica. Se entiende." Their eyes flickered toward one of the walls of their fairly vacant room. "Quick question, though: you get this intense over your crew, too?"

The answer was immediate. "Of course. If they prove their loyalty, they get it in turn." her eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Oh, that's easy." The easy smirk was back on their face. "I want in. But I figured you'd want me to prove myself first." They gestured to their surroundings. "Where do you think we are?"

Ashe dragged her eyes off of them to really look at the room around the two. The lights were bright, but all they shined on were a bunch of open emptied containers. But they weren't any run of the mill cardboard boxes, they were...

"Relic tech," she finished the thought aloud. "Are we...?"

"On the ship?" They nodded. "Bingo. Listen, we don't have a lotta time left. The Talon ship you saw's coming to pick up..." They conjured a purple holoscreen showing a vibrant white box roughly the size of Bob's head. "The energy core of this whole thing. It's not running full capacity, but it's running."

Her grip on their cloak loosened as her mind quickly connected the dots. "Knowin' Relic tech, that thing could probably power a whole goddamn _colony planet_ till the end of time at full power." A lightbulb went off in her mind. "Either they have somethin' planned for it, or they want it for future prospects. Fix it up, get it runnin' in full."

"Ding-ding-ding," they tapped the tip of her nose repeatedly. "We have a winner. We're here to make sure they don't get that opportunity." They dismissed the holoscreen. "Hall outside's guarded, but," they reached into their cloak to showcase a sleek little submachine gun. "I can deal with them. Soon as apago las luces, go down the hall to the left till you see the only room with a light. Emergency power should also be out, so don't worry about the door."

"Once I have it," she tried to pick up on the plan. "How long d'ya want me to wait for you to catch up?"

They snorted. "Precisely zero seconds," they reached into their cloak with their unarmed hand. "Once you have the core, you run like el Diablo's nipping at your heels. Keep this with you." They handed her a palm-sized device, faintly glowing purple. "Either I catch up with you, or I don't. Don't worry about me."

"You seem competent enough," Ashe admitted, tucking the device into her vest's deepest pocket. "You make it through, you have a strong case for Deadlock." She held up a finger. "One last thing, though."

"Shoot."

"What's your name?" She asked. "And don't give me that codename kinda shit; I wanna know the _real_ name of potential recruits."

They smiled at that. "Fair enough," they said. "It's Olivia. We'll see if you earn my last name eventually, amiga." She threw an extra wink in at the end.

Ashe chuckled. "Alright, Liv," she readied herself to run like hell. "I'm ready. See ya' on the other side."

"Same to you, Liz." Purple threads of light extended from her fingertips, tying themselves into a console on the wall. 

It only took a moment for the lights to go dead. It took another for her to hear disgruntled shouts and plenty of doors opening.

Ashe didn't look back. She just ran.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment! I'd like to see if people enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!!  
> my tumblr: squishy--squish   
> hmu if you want my discord


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